1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle-body behavior control apparatus for minimizing a jack-up force generated on a vehicle body while a vehicle is turning.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, when vehicles such as automobiles are in the course of a turning operation, a so-called jack-up force is generated that lifts up the vehicle body during the turning operation. Such a force is one of the factors that can impair the driving stability. As countermeasures in the related art, the rolling height of the vehicle body has been lowered or the roll rigidity has been increased. However, these countermeasures unfavorably degrade riding comfort.
In order to solve this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-170276 discloses an example of a technology in which toe-angle adjusting means for individually adjusting toe angles of left and right wheels is provided. Specifically, in this technology, the toe-angle adjusting means controls the toe angles of the left and right wheels by increasing the lateral force of an inside turning wheel and decreasing the lateral force of an outside turning wheel within a predetermined range in which lateral acceleration during a turning operation is small.
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-170276, the toe-angle control is performed to increase the lateral force of an inside turning wheel and to decrease the lateral force of an outside turning wheel so as to reduce the difference in lateral tire forces between the inside and outside wheels. However, the control should be performed in view of forces acting orthogonally on the vehicle body instead of lateral tire forces, and moreover, is not performed in view of the case where the control wheels are driving wheels. For these reasons, such a technology is insufficient for effectively minimizing a jack-up force acting on the vehicle body to achieve a good roll feel for the driver.